Most of the clothes you send us are in great condition which means they get listed for resale. Also, we’re an online business so can hold an item on our website for a long time before it gets bought, that’s why our resale percentage is so good.
Charity shops get such a huge volume of clothes donated it becomes a problem. They only have a limited amount of retail space to display them in and clothes get moved on quickly if they don’t sell. The items become ‘rag’ and are sold to textile recyclers at a fraction of their resale value.
Learn why we don’t sell our clothes to textile recyclers
Our commitment to Zero Waste
We’re passionate about keeping clothes out of landfill and in circulation. But some items we receive can't be resold due to defects like a stains, rips, broken zips, etc. It’s a problem faced by all businesses that deal with second-hand clothes and the challenge for us is how we handle this textile waste ethically.
Read on to learn about how we over invest to keep all our textile waste, in-use and in the UK .
Read on to learn about how we over invest to keep all our textile waste, in-use and in the UK .
Resale
Rag Bags
We sort the clothes we can’t resell into Rag Bags, 2kg packages containing a mixture of items that can be repaired or repurposed by a burgeoning creative community.
We sell them at cost so that as many upcycler’s as possible can can get access to the material and create something wonderful and unique from them.
You can buy a Rag Bag here
Reclaimed
The items that can’t be reused by upcyclers get broken down and converted into the raw materials required for making new clothes. Items that can't be reclaimed get compressed into pellets that can be used by the construction industry.
We invest in getting this last 5% of unwanted clothing recycled correctly. This is done in the UK so no material is shipped overseas. One day we hope the whole industry will follow this same principle.
What is Rag?
The second-hand industry creates rag. It's the clothes that can't be sold due to defects like a stains, rips, broken zips, etc. These items in turn get sold by the kilo to textile recyclers and becomes a source of income.